Help us Record 175,000 Hours of Service

1/7/2014

We continue to collect stories and information about how YOU and your fellow Duhawks are living out the Loras mission every day through serving others. In honor of Loras’ 175th anniversary, we are aiming to prove that between our alumni, faculty, staff and students, Duhawks give 175,000 hours!

From driving the Girl Scout carpool or unpacking boxes at the local food pantry, to traveling abroad to teach orphaned children or serving on a non-profit board, you all have stories to tell, and we want to hear about it! Help us reach our goal by filling out the survey and/or sharing your story as a post at alumni.loras.edu/shareyourservice.

Take inspiration from others, be inspiration for others!

Here is an example of one inspiring story to warm your heart and spark your Duhawk pride.

Cathy Heying (’92) founded The Lift Garage, an auto mechanic shop in Minneapolis, Minn., that provides repairs at a greatly reduced rate to low income patrons, in 2013. She explains:

“My work at St. Stephen's Catholic Church was the total inspiration for this. I worked as the Director of Social Justice for 9 years there and it was when people kept showing up at the church asking for money to get their cars fixed. The story was often the same: people needed their vehicles repaired, and if they didn't get repaired they wouldn't be able to get to work. If they didn't get to work then they'd lose their jobs, wouldn't be able to pay rent and then would wind up in the shelter. The church would help when we could but the need was so great.

In 2008 I left my job at the church and started working part time at St. Stephen's Human services (an offshoot of the church but no longer affiliated with St. Stephen's Church). At that time I decided to go back to school to get an AA degree in Auto Technology. (I already had my BA from Loras in Social Work and my MA from St. Mary's University in Pastoral Ministry).

I didn't really want to do this but the Holy Spirit kept nagging me so I just kept taking one step at a time.

My time at Loras was instrumental to who I am today. Under the great mentorship and modeling of Billie Greenwood and Paul Allen among many others, I learned about social injustice, war, economics of profit and greed, but more importantly I learned about social JUSTICE, PEACE, and ECONOMICS OF JUSTICE AND FAIR TRADE. I learned that there are answers to the great suffering in the world and that we are each part of the answer. I learned that we must not only be about service but we must be about changing the economic structures that keep people in poverty. These are all of the values that provide the foundation for The Lift Garage. It is my belief that we are not only providing a place for people's cars to get repaired but by providing it at a rate that is affordable to them we can, in a small way, right an economic injustice that is found in poverty wages, expensive health care and more.

Another foundational value that sounds so simple but is not practiced in much of the world, is that just because you are poor does not mean you are not trustworthy. If people tell us that they will pay 1/2 now and 1/2 next month, we believe them and take them at their word. That practice is about trying to right the injustice of discrimination, judgment and distrust that keeps people from moving forward.”

Cathy works at The Lift Garage about 30 hours per week, and gets paid for 10. She continues to work part time for St. Stephen’s Human Services doing homeless advocacy as well.